I saw the post about the DQ shift manager trainee getting crapped on for missing work during bad weather. It boiled something in me because I went through a very similar thing that I don't think anyone should be shamed for. Now I understand weather can be unpredictable so obviously most businesses won't close too far in advance, that's okay. But it's pretty stinky when the weather is actively proving to be dangerous and the concerns get brushed off by the higher-ups. And funnily enough, it seems like I only hear these stories from people who work non-livable wage jobs (and yes, I'm calling it non-livable instead of minimum).
So here's what happened to me. I'm a shift manager at retail store. The very niche kind of store where they don't really sell any essentials. I was already at the store when we had a winter storm start to come through and customers stopped showing up, and it started several hours before our closing time. There was only a few inches of snowfall, but it was extremely windy and the temps were so low that you could get frostbite within minutes.
The neighboring stores in the plaza called us to see if we were closing up early so people can get home safe. I directed that question to the higher-up and they literally said, “it looks fine from my window.” Lmao. Again, we didn't have crazy amounts of snowfall, but the strong winds were blowing it around everywhere and the temps were dangerous. So we stayed open til our normal time when the temps would get even lower and more dangerous, and it got even more windy. No one came in. About four of the other stores nearby closed early, even the Wendy's closed up shop! And one of the managers from a neighboring store complained to me that the only reason they had to close early was because no one from their night crew wanted to come in. Lol. I wonder why. Now I know where I'm not shopping.
So we close at 10pm and it's just me and one other employee. I sent the third person home way earlier without hesitation (I honestly would have sent the other, too, but we can't keep the store open with only one person). We have to take turns going outside to move our cars up closer and let them warm up, because if we both left the building we wouldn't be able to go back inside. We went back inside and waited for almost 30 minutes, and even there it was cold because the heat (which doesn't go up enough in general) turns off after the store closes. My car's temp gauge did not go up at all, and it barely reached the 1/4 mark for the whole car ride home.
My car ride, which normally takes 30 minutes mostly highway, turned into 1hr30min when I realized all the roads were complete ice rinks. It was so cold that the road salt was not working. Many cars were parked on the shoulder all crooked, some cars were facing the wrong way, a bunch of emergency lights going off. At one point on the highway, there was an SUV that had clearly spun out and they were just standing in the middle of the road taking up two lanes, and that messed up everyone who was passing by.
I was shaking not only from the low temps but I was scared for my life that one wrong move would put me in a ditch or hurl me into another vehicle. It did not matter that I had just got new tires. I had such little control of my car with the icy roads and the wind blowing me around.
I wondered in that moment if I died, if anyone from the company would care, if they would care enough to reach out to my family. If I was injured, would they give me a reasonable amount of time to recover? Would they pay me for whatever sick time I have without asking other employees to donate their sick time to me? Is there any company in the world that would do that? I'm not doing this ever again. I'm calling off or camping inside the store next time.
Anyway I just wanted to vent about this. No company, no sale, no non-livable wage job is worth getting injured or dying for. I learned that now.